Bits Of William C. Burns

William Chalmers Burns (1815-1868) was the first Scottish missionary sent to China by the Presbyterian Church. He spent years studying the Chinese language and worked with Hudson Taylor to evangelized the Chinese people. The paragraphs below pretty much sum it up.

“Many who do come into the secret place, and who are God’s children, enter it and leave it just as they entered, without ever so much as realizing the presence of God. And there are some believers who, even when they do obtain a blessing, and get a little quickening of soul, leave the secret place without seeking more. They go to their chamber, and there get into the secret place, but then, as soon as they have gotten near to Him, they think they have been peculiarly blessed, leave their chamber, and go back into the world…

Oh, how is it that the Lord’s own people have so little perseverance? How is it that when they do enter into their place of prayer to be alone, they are so easily persuaded to be turned away empty; instead of wrestling with God to pour out His Spirit, they retire from the secret place without the answer, and submit to it as being God’s will.”